With no advance notice, it appears that SDCIA might be in the process of changing its message board policy. Normal access through http://www.sdcia.com is now leading to a "New Site Goes Live!" message, and the new board at least for now does not appear to connect to this (old) site. If this message posts successfully, it is because an older link still is working.

From the posted message on the new site (copied below), it is not clear whether new registration and a paid membership will be required in order to access the new site.

If SDCIA is changing its policy to only allow web site access to persons who re-register and pay annual dues, this will have an effect on the number of posters and quality of posts. Many current posters do not live in San Diego and do not invest in San Diego real estate. Many of these are unlikely to be willing to pay annual dues solely for the ability to read or post on the message board.

This would inevitably lead to a decline in quantity and quality of posts. Locals would be more likely to meet in person, bypassing the message boards, and non-locals would be unlikely to be willing to pay solely for the privilege of accessing a message board.

The SDCIA message board is unique and has attracted a disproportionate number of high quality posts and posters, who have shared a vast amount of knowledge, experience and insight. It has also entertained us, and encouraged and enabled many of us to hone our writing skills.

I, for one, hope that SDCIA will continue with its proven, established message board policy.

*******

New Site Goes Live!

First off, welcome to the new site. We will be making every effort to get all of the accounts for the active members updated. As soon as you register with the site we will cross reference your email to our membership database. Upon which you'll then be given access to the members only sections of the site.

If you are a paid member and you have not heard from anyone with regards to your membership, please contact WebSupport (Click on upper right section of the website and fill out email form).

If you are a new member, you can follow the standard flow and review the membership benefits. You'll be given access to the site immediately once your payment has been approved.

In any case, if you experience any problems with the website, please contact websupport. You'll get a quick response.

Ahhh. You beat me to it!! Yes, there has been a change to SDCIA's web presence in effort to continue serving it's members (paid or unpaid). NOTHING with regards to the policy has changed.

For unpaid members, please register with the site. No different than when you registered with this forum. Please read the following: http://why.sdcia.com/. However now, we have the ability to offer our registered users additional benefits that will enhance their user experience and allow us to grow with today's demands for a closed loop community build on the concepts of Networking, Creativity and Knowledge.

Bill made a major announcement but I apologize for not placing a better notice here. None of the policies are changing. We are mainly trying to improve the way members register, and get automated updates, passwords etc.

I'm still confused about this website. I no longer live in San Diego, but I have kept in touch with many real estate issues in San Diego.

I wouldn't try to restrict the website just for the purpose of san diego real estate. Many of the posters are investors in different assets besides real estate and especially just san diego real estate.

If the aim of the plan isn't to restrict membership, what is the advantage of the new site? Not being negative here, just trying to figure this out.

I registered the other day; took just a minute or so. I have this site book marked in my favorites so I suppose I will need to add the new site to my bookmark. We went through this back in 2005 when they made the last forum change.

I think there was issues with that change as well. I can't recall that far back. We lost all the archives back then as well, and it looks like that will be the case here. That is a shame if they cannot port over these posts.

At some point we will want an update of Jeff and we won't have the history, we may also want to get an update on lost shirt in Tuscon as well. Of course, I will also want to know what the house in Clairmont is worth today, and perhaps 12 months from now. Sadly, we won't be able to get those updates.

I think others are feeling the same.

But probably the biggest change... I won't have the most posts on this forum.

Originally Posted by javipaThis older format is significantly more focused and functional than the new one. The other one is complicated and overly anal, if not chock full of distractions.

yes I agree. In the new forum, too much screen real estate is wasted on the left, and if you have a wider screen then it still uses only less than 1000 pixels and fills up the remaining space with a blue border. The old forum had less graphics, plain text = what Javipa calls "focus". I agree.I saw the new forum yesterday for the first time and noticed that there were some posts that were not on the "old" forum.

I think I can understand why the change was made- the site operator wants to have full control instead of having the content on a (free?) 3rd party's server.

Maybe the new forum can be configured to mimic the old forum's appearance?

With this board being as "socialized" as it has been, I can hardly believe the clunky transition that has been allowed to happen here. No warning. No announcement. No conditioning of the forum posters about the "exciting new home" or venue. It's just a blunt force transition, where the upside for the posters isn't expressed and not apparent, except to the web master! LOL!

Ok, that's it for my rant.

__________________"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goals." --- Henry Ford

I don't like the new board either. You can't see as many lines of posts as on the old website. Maybe the cost of the old website was becoming prohibitively expensive, I don't know. (Is it that expensive? I mean, I know someone who bought a 2 terrabyte hard drive from egghead for 200$. That is 2000 GB. And hard drive prices have continued to fall. As I understand, they have so far downloaded 82.6 terrabytes from the Library of Congress--which, I believe to be the one of the worlds' largest libraries. We aren't wordier than that, are we?)

I concede that I am no computer expert and maybe there were no better alternatives. But I know what I like and don't like---and I don't like the new website. Just my 2 cents.

Originally Posted by javipaThis older format is significantly more focused and functional than the new one. The other one is complicated and overly anal, if not chock full of distractions.

Sorry Bill, but it seems this migration and web transformation isn't forum-friendly, and if it was just a registration control issue, I'm missing the point.

Javipa

I couldn't agree more; the fact that this board is still getting way more traffic than the new one should tell you something. I'd recommend sticking with the old board, and soliciting registrations some other way; I for one would be happy to go through the registration process in return for keeping the old board up.

As a 17-year IT vet, I can tell you from experience that more bells and whistles isn't necessarily better.

Well I noticed several things. Many of which have already been mentioned.

First though, the clock is wrong on the other one, and I mentioned it daysago but it is still off.

But as for format, one thing that I noticed this morning while typing a response to a post was that there is only a tiny window for the typing area so I cannot see much of what the other wrote without scrolling down and up over and over again, not fun.

Next, you can't see many posts on one screen much more scrolling to see anything.

Next, much less area to work with in general.

Can't find the command to edit existing posts to fix mistakes.

That's all I can remember off the top of my head but I believe there are many others that have come to mind over the last few day trying to use it.

Here are a few things I like about this board functionality that I don't believe the other one has.

1. New messages are automatically filtered to the top of the list regardless of how old the original post is. I realize that the new format allows for a search of all new posts since my last visit but this format does that automatically by just filtering them to the top. Less clicks to get the same info with this format.

2. I really like the ability to read through a thread in this format and then click the "Next Thread" button at the bottom without having to go back to the main directory and then navigate to the next one. Again, less clicks to get to the same content.

3. I agree with what others have said about the clutter on the new format. This format is much less cluttered which makes it easier to read. Like someone else said, after just a few minutes on the new format, I am ready to move on. Not so much with this one.

The most valuable real estate is just a distraction from the forum discussion area. Otherwise the header is a waste with an overly huge 1,000 pixel by 250 or 300 block? Why? And all black? It's harder on the eyes with this much contrast. Also it's unimaginative and appears low-budget. Normally I like that, but I like "low budget" in white or navy.

The stats for each post are stacked underneath each post, making it virtually impossible to absorb the information at a glance, or immediately compare popularity of certain posts and posters.

Other poster's bio's pop up for no reason and block my view. I don't need to see poster's bio and geography every time I hover over the "wrong" spot.

Instead of having each page "dedicated" (more or less) to a function with minimal links, every page is cluttered up with directions to somewhere else.

The contrast highligting in red for every single post title is just too much visual gunk. Just give me the forum entries on one row, and don't force me to look at several lines of text for each post.

All of it is overly complex and hard to read on the forum page itself.

My oversall suggestion for the "Everything Real Estate" page, is to duplicate the old forum's functional appearance and approach and leave the rest of the pages as they are. I don't go to the other pages anyway often enough to make me care one way or another.

Is that specific enough?

Frankly, I've really taken the old forum design and function for granted. SDCIA has been my favorite forum, and one of the reasons I'm just now becoming aware of is because of its simplicity and ease of use --- not to mention the high payoff one receives from viewing this forum.

It's too bad the behind the scenes mechanics of it are NOT functional enough for the web master, because the new web design upgrades at this point are second rate.

I could say a lot more, but after a point I ask, "What's the point?"

I must sound like a cranky old man? "Remember the good ol' days when women didn't drive!" j/k!

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__________________"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goals." --- Henry Ford

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